ABSTRACT
With the restoration of Charles II to the English throne in 1660, the ultimate destiny of the eastern enterprise began to unfold. It is not for nothing that recent scholarship covering the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century has chronicled a previously undocumented but fundamental transformation in the English state and its economy during this period. The dating of the modern fiscal and bureaucratic infrastructure, seen as unique to England’s development as an industrial nation and leader on the world stage, has now been pushed back over a hundred years.
